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Racial bias colors the public’s understanding of black NFL quarterbacks so systemically that black participants in a University of Colorado study stereotyped black athletes more strongly than white participants did.

“A lot of research shows that groups that are stereotyped more often than other groups end up to start believing those stereotypes about themselves more than you would think,” said Pat Ferrucci, an assistant professor in the College of Media, Communication and Information who worked on two recently published studies looking at the biases that come with being a minority quarterback.

Inspired by Super Bowl 50, with the Denver Broncos’ 24-10 championship victory over the Carolina Panthers and the discourse surrounding Cam Newton as a quarterback, Ferrucci wanted to see if previously researched stereotypes of black athletes — their natural strength and born talent in comparison to white athletes being strong and hardworking — were actually accepted.

“We are all aware of the stereotypes that are out there in the discourse — it’s almost unavoidable,” Ferrucci said in a CU Boulder Today post. “In these two studies, we were looking to see if people actually apply them, and the answer is yes.”

The first study, which was published in the Howard Journal of Communications, recruited black and white college students and asked them to rate paragraphs and photographs of either black or white NFL quarterbacks based on their physical strength, natural ability, leadership and intelligence.

“While all participants stereotyped both races to some extent, black participants stereotyped both races more strongly, suggesting that stereotypes about black quarterbacks may be so ingrained that black players may not believe they are cut out to be a professional quarterback, which could in turn affect how they view and play football starting in adolescence,” the CU post read.

That said, she recognized minority groups adopting their own stereotypes was not a new phenomenon.

“Kind of similarly, if we switch from race to gender, you can often find that men and women will both stereotype along the lines of women not being as well-suited for science, technology, engineering and math skills,” Blair said. “Or both men and women making assumptions about the women being more strongly associated with taking care of small children. It’s the same for the race context.”

White participants from a greater range of ages and education levels were sampled in the second study, published in the International Journal of Sport Communication. This study found participants only assigned stereotypes to bios and photographs of black quarterbacks but not to white ones.

“Even when told that a black quarterback, for example, was exceptionally intelligent, the white participants still did not rate that player as being as intelligent as a similarly-described white quarterback,” the post read.

“The stereotyping of NFL quarterbacks has been so systemic over the past few decades that even though there might be more black NFL quarterbacks today than there were 30 years ago, there aren’t that many actually playing,” Ferrucci said.

The Denver Broncos declined to comment on whether they had seen racial stereotypes affect their team.

“The public is actually believing these stereotypes and applying them, and they can have consequences beyond just football,” Ferrucci said.

Ferrucci brought up Trayvon Martin, a 17-year-old unarmed black boy from Florida who was shot and killed by George Zimmerman. Zimmerman was found not guilty of second-degree murder and manslaughter.

“A lot of these situations could have been just because people applied stereotypes to groups of people without thinking too hard,” Ferrucci said.

Blair warned against drawing extreme conclusions from one study but did note that there are many similar studies and, together, they create a rich, broad context in which to better understand the world.

“Behavior is complex,” she said. “I think we all need to be aware that things influence us when we don’t think they do, but at the same time it isn’t always direct, super strong, definitely going to happen.”

Many athletic stereotypes, Ferrucci said, are spread by sports broadcasters and journalists in routine talk about players. He hopes that with increasing research, both the media and the public can recognize their own perceptions and work on changing them.

“There are over decades of research showing this happens,” he said. “This is consistently happening across sports based on race and ethnicity, and the more knowledge that’s out there, the better.”